We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vanessa Ross a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Vanessa, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

Time is the biggest challenge. The longer I have been in this business the better I am at estimating the time it will take me to complete a cake but there have been many, many times that I have missed the mark. People need to understand that custom work does not come with a “cookie cutter” template for estimating the time necessary to complete a cake. The more detailed the more time I have to plan. When giving a quote people often reply, “How much?! It’s just a cake!” Not only is that response insulting but it implies that my time is worth less than theirs.

The cost of my time also includes the countless hours I spend honing my craft. I belong to two paid monthly subscriptions that include online instruction. These are not just free YouTube videos but actual classes with full instructions and lifetime access should I need to review skills. When I receive an order with a design I have not yet created or a skill I have not used before I spend time in advance practicing so that the delivered product exceeds the customer’s expectations.

The second biggest challenge is the overhead. I am fully licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture as a home-based provider and insured as such. I have invested thousands into commercial equipment and marketing. Currently, the cost of goods is higher than I have ever experienced and I have the additional cost of insurance and licensing automatically making me more expensive than someone who is not operating legally out of their home.

Vanessa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have a degree in Marketing from Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire and am a self-taught cake designer who got into the business because I was bored. Literally! I was wandering around a big-box store looking for a new hobby when I found a cake decorating set with four piping tips and a booklet that taught how to use them.

I bought it and was instantly in love.

Then, the Food Network created a series of Cake Challenges where they gave designers the theme, they had to create the design and build the cakes in a ridiculously short period of time. All of the designers used this stuff called “fondant” to decorate the cakes. As a hobby designer I have never heard of fondant. Since this was before YouTube I had to order books to learn how to work with fondant. I still have those books and still use them!

I used to watch the cake challenges on the Food Network with a paper and pen handy so I could take notes because they used to show techniques and skills. I would then use those notes to make cakes with my newly attained skills and give them to friends, family or take them to the office where I was working at the time. To this day I still love learning new skills and techniques and enjoy being able to offer my customers a wide variety of options for their events.

As time progressed I moved away from the world of marketing and stepped into the world of cakes. A move I will never regret.

I love what I do. The more challenging the better. Not only do my cakes look fabulous, they taste even better. I have developed recipes that hold up whether I am carving a sloth or decorating a wedding cake. My cake is never dry and my designs are remembered for years!

I love when I get to create something that outshines previous creations. I just had such an experience. I recently created a cake for the A. Duie Pyle Trucking Company’s 100th Anniversary celebration. It was a 1:15 scale reproduction of a truck with a 53′ trailer, was 54″ in length and served close to 300 people. It took me a full week just to decorate. My husband was instrumental in the construction of the base. It had to be solid enough to transport the 1.5 hours in a car on Interstate 95! I spent the whole night standing by the truck to explain that it was a cake and asked people not to touch!

I take a great deal of pride in creating cakes that exceed my customer’s expectations. I love to show up with a cake that is so realistic that my customers can’t believe its a cake!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

When I first opened I joined the local Chamber of Commerce. Initially 70% of my customers were chamber members. Over the years I have cultivated relationships with wedding venues and participate in as many bridal shows and wedding expos as possible within a reasonable distance. Now 70% of my business comes from the wedding venues and the remainder comes through the Chamber of Commerce and social media.

For me, the key has been relationship development. Whether through the Chamber or the venues, I spend time getting to know the people. We all want to do business with people we know and trust. Having customers refer me to friends and family members is humbling. It means that I got it right and they trust me enough to refer me to their loved ones.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There have been a couple of times that I had to pivot.

I was building a strong business when I got pregnant with twins. To describe my pregnancy as miserable would be an understatement. I had to close because I couldn’t stand the smell of cakes baking. I worked from home in marketing until the boys were about 1.5 years old and then relaunched.

I threw myself into as many networking groups as possible and once again ramped up involvement in the Chamber of Commerce.

I was well on my way to becoming an elite high-end, desired cake designer with a full calendar of events when COVID hit and we were forced into lockdown.

Because I am a food based business I was permitted to stay open. Overnight I went from huge events with 100+ servings to making just a dozen cupcakes or 6″ cakes. My biggest sellers during that time were the poop cupcakes and toilet paper cakes…Not something I ever imagined for myself or my business!

Immediately, I started receiving tons of orders for cupcakes and small cakes. I could do the baking and decoration but didn’t have the time to do the deliveries. I sent up a prayer asking for a solution to this dilemma and approximately 45 minutes later Daphne of Designs by Daphne called to see if there was anything she could do to help me! As an interior designer she was shut down and was looking for something positive for herself and her daughter to do to help them feel better. Daphne has a van that is painted like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. She has a Daphne costume and her daughter would wear a Scooby Doo costume for the deliveries.

Talk about a perfect partnership! All I had to do was bake and decorate and she and her daughter took care of deliveries, kept any tips they made and I paid for their mileage.

So many people placed orders just for their kids to put a smile on their faces. Not because they had any special event but just because they were worried about their kids mental health and wanted to make a happy memory. When I could, I would drive out for the deliveries too.

Making so many children happy did wonders for my mental health too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vanessarosscakes.com
• Instagram: @vanessarosscakes
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VanessaRossCakes/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessaross2010/

Image Credits

I own the rights to all of the pictures.